At this point Jan had divorced Hank Pym (following the world-famous wife-slapping scene, after which it became inevitable), who was himself sitting in jail for an unrelated offense. Eventually that offense was proven to be not his fault and he was released. (Actually, wasn't the wife-beating also determined in a later issue to be not his fault? Some things are unforgivable regardless of retcons, apparently.)
So Hank was in jail and Jan continued her Avenging career. In fact, that's how this whole issue started--the Avengers go into battle, they defeat the villain, She-Hulk is holding up a building, Hawkeye helps her out with some well-placed arrows, the day is saved, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we see this:
And perhaps nothing would have come of it--surely Tony Stark notices pretty girls all the time--but not long after, while relaxing at "one of his many Manhattan dwellings," Tony is all set to skip a fabulous party in favor of spending the night at home. But when he hears who else is on the guest list--namely, Jan--he changes his mind. And pretty soon they're dancing the night away:
and more:
In the weeks to come, the two start dating up a storm, attending glamorous events, vacationing together on a tropical island:
even visiting a street far (because although Jan and Tony are rich, they can still appreciate the common pleasures :)) and going out for coffee afterwards:
The attentive reader will have noticed something here: Tony is dating Jan while not letting on to her that he is Iron Man, her old friend and colleague. Her ex-husband's old friend and colleague.
Sure, he's a little guilty about it--okay, quite a bit guilty--but one wonders how it is that he was willing to go on a single date with her in this situation. It's not a Superman-and-Lois situation, after all--a number of the other Avengers already know that Stark is IM, and apparently the only reason Jan doesn't is that she wasn't active on the team at the time he made the announcement. He clearly knows that there's something wrong about this, and yet he just can't bring himself to tell Jan about the secret identity thing and possibly risk the relationship. Because, well, Stark is a needy kind of guy--by which I mean nothing terrible, just that he's always been portrayed (at this point in his history, at least) as spending a lot of time looking for love. It's a priority for him. To some extent, having a significant love relationship is more of a priority than maintaining strictly ethical behavior in that relationship. I think that inevitably he'd have told Jan, because he's not a bad person--just that he's going to put it off as long as humanly possible.
However, and fortunately for the drama in this issue, someone calls him on his behavior.
Who?
Who do you think?
It's the Avengers' perennial moral compass and occasional buzzkill, Captain America.
Well, really, only Cap seems to be experiencing this degree of moral outrage. Thor is more sympathetic, for the most part:
Aye, Thor himself knows well the ways of the heart, and 'tis true, they are beyond all reason. But you fear now that your pleasure brings pain to another. 'Tis the plight of Hank Pym that causes you such grief. Yet, have you not brought great happiness to Jan? You have done no wrong in Thor's eyes, Iron Man.
However, he does share an important concern with Cap (as well as with Tony himself)--the fact that Jan doesn't know that Tony is Iron Man.
So, finally, Tony makes his revelation to Jan:
The fallout is probably pretty much as anyone would have anticipated--they break it off, remaining friends, but the budding romance is over.
Does Jan survive the blow, moving on with her life? Absolutely!
Does Tony learn anything from the experience? I'm guessing not really.
3 comments:
I think he learned that it was necessary to erase the knowledge of his secret identity from everyone on the planet.
And then reveal it a few more times, of course ...
Is it awful of me to have sympathy for Tony here? He's a recovering alcoholic, of course, and I'm unsure just how close to his recovery this story takes place, but isn't it plausible that he's transferring that psychological dependency from one bad decision to another?
Furthermore, he can even justify it as not a bad decision, as he is not moving in on his buddy's girl, but providing a long-time friend and colleague with an outlet for stress relief and emotion.
Of course, he could have just been hot for the "W"-shaped uniform.
-Bill
http://billscomics.blogspot.com
FK: And then reveal it a few more times, of course ...
I know--it's hard to remember that there was ever a time when IM's secret identity wasn't a joke.
Bill: Is it awful of me to have sympathy for Tony here?
Not at all, I actually feel sorry for the guy as well, he's had a hard time of it with all the really terrible choices he's made with regard to girlfriends! And goodness knows we've all done some stupid stuff when it comes to romance--love just turns off the logic switch in the brain.
The thing is here, he obviously knew that Jan wouldn't want to go out with him if she knew that Tony Stark = Iron Man, or else he wouldn't have been putting off telling her. Since so many of the other Avengers knew his secret ID, there was literally no other reason not to tell her other than that he knew she'd break it off if she knew about it. So while I do feel for him, I also think that this is an example of some pretty selfish behavior on his part. Understandable, yes, but not at all a nice thing to do.
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